Honey Mint Ale

Pretty much all you need is some honey malt, and some mint leaves. The amount would depend on the rest of your grain-bill.

I guess it would something like this:

Golden Promise 95%
Honey Malt 5%
Mint ???
Magnum @ 60...(neutral hop)

Mash @ 154°

That would be the easiest way, but there are certainly many, many more options.

 

I'd say keep it like a blonde, hopped pretty low, and something light.

Maybe:

2 row
carapils
honey malt

Use some northern brewer or something like that, it has this slight woody evergreen mint nose to it. Would work great to keep the hops backed, but still give you some bitterness.

How much honey malt you want.. well thats up to you.

I'd personally think that #1 of the stuff in the grist would be over the top honey flavor if thats what you want. I'd dry to get the beer down as low as possible FG wise, as well.

 

Bottle carb with honey. Stick to honey malt otherwise if you don't want it too dry. No clue about the mint. Never thought about it in a beer

 

I don't know what you mean by "drying out the mint", but replacing malt with simple sugars like honey will definitely dry out the beer, and the more you use the greater the effect will be, obviously.

 

I think he's talking about real honey..

We're talking about honey malt.

If you use the honey in the boil, you'l pretty much just be adding expensive good sugar.. Wont get much honey flavor.

Honey malt on the other hand.. you'll get tons of honey sweetness from it.

 

Using actual honey will not give you any "honey" characteristics in the final beer, but as others have stated it will dry it out.

 

I've made beers (probably better classified as braggots) with this much honey or more (as much as 50% of the gravity coming from honey). They were always great, and in fact I'm a huge fan of them, but they're always light bodied and dry.

 

This is not true, the sugar in the honey ferments out but the aromatics in good quality honey definitely come through in the final product if some care is taken. This assumes you're using a good quality raw honey in sufficient quantity, you're treating it gently and you're not clobbering it with hops. I've made many many braggots and meads through the years and its not difficult to get a good honey character to come through.

 

If you will be using honey, do not boil it at all.

 

To the OP, I think you can both appease your friend by using his honey (at least some of it) and make a fine beer in the process. I would recommend doing something like this"

50% Maris otter
25% Honey
10% Caravienna
5% Honey malt
Bittering hop at 60 min to 10 IBUs
English ale yeast

You're on your own with the mint.

 

Braggots can be whatever ABV you want them to be, I've brewed braggots with ABVs ranging from 5% to 12%.

 

make mead with it. you can age it for a long time, plus that means you get to brew 2 different things with your friend

edit: do what Homebrew42 said!